About ReqBin Online SOAP API Testing Tool
Paste a SOAP endpoint URL, put the XML envelope in the Body tab, and send the request from your browser — no account, no install. You get back the status code, the response time in milliseconds, and the response body, formatted and validated. Requests are sent from the ReqBin server, not from your browser, so the service sees a server-to-server call and CORS does not apply.
What is a SOAP API?
A SOAP API is a web service that exchanges XML messages over HTTP according to the SOAP specification. Every call is an XML envelope: a <soap:Envelope> element wrapping an optional <soap:Header> and a <soap:Body> that carries the operation and its parameters. The service publishes its operations, types and endpoint in a WSDL document.
Where a REST API names the resource in the URL and the operation in the HTTP method, a SOAP API sends every call to one endpoint and names the operation inside the envelope. That is why a SOAP request needs two things a REST request usually does not: an XML content type, and an operation name the service can read before it parses the body.
What do I need to send a SOAP request?
The endpoint URL, the XML envelope, and three header decisions.
- Method — POST. Both SOAP 1.1 and SOAP 1.2 carry the envelope in the request body.
Content-Type—text/xml; charset=utf-8for SOAP 1.1,application/soap+xml; charset=utf-8for SOAP 1.2. Pick Custom in the Body tab and type the value: the XML option sendsapplication/xml, which some services reject.SOAPAction— SOAP 1.1 requires this header on every request, and its value names the operation. An empty value is allowed by the specification and rejected by many services, so use the one the WSDL gives. Add it in the Headers tab. SOAP 1.2 carries the action as a parameter ofContent-Typeinstead.
How to test a SOAP API online?
- Paste the endpoint URL into the address field above and set the method to POST.
- Open the Body tab, pick Custom, and type the content type your service expects.
- Paste the SOAP envelope into the editor below it.
- Open the Headers tab and add
SOAPActionwith the operation name. - If the service requires credentials, enter them in the Auth tab.
- Press Send, then read the status code, the response time, and the XML response, formatted and validated by the built-in XML formatter.
- Generate a PHP, Python, JavaScript/AJAX, Node.js, Java, C#/.NET or Curl/Bash snippet from the same request once it works.
What if I do not have a SOAP endpoint to test yet?
Send a POST to https://reqbin.com/echo/post/xml. It accepts any XML body and answers with a fixed XML document, so you can check that your method, headers and payload leave the browser the way you meant them to before pointing the tool at a real service. The same endpoint answers on https://reqbin.com/sample/post/xml.
It is an echo endpoint, not a SOAP service: it does not read your envelope, does not dispatch an operation, and never returns a SOAP Fault. Use it to verify the request, not the response.
Is a SOAP API the same as a REST API?
No. A REST API names the resource in the URL, the operation in the HTTP method, and usually returns JSON. A SOAP API sends every call to a single endpoint as an XML envelope, names the operation inside it, and fixes the contract in a WSDL file — so two calls to the same service share a URL and a method, and differ in the envelope and in the operation they name.
The same request editor takes either one, and the Response tab formats XML and JSON alike. For REST endpoints specifically, use the REST API testing tool.
Do I need to install a SOAP client?
Not for sending a request and reading the response. Desktop clients such as SoapUI install on your machine and add WSDL import, assertions and test suites. ReqBin runs in the browser and does none of that: it sends one request at a time and shows you the status code, the timing and the response.
It fits when you need to check a SOAP endpoint now — paste the URL, set the content type, send the envelope, read what came back — rather than build a regression suite.